24 Nov 2009

Researching and observing natural wonders and animals is constantly surprising us. This is the natures' charm that amazes us. We will never completely understand its ways, but we can always admire, respect and preserve it for the future generations.

Tourists who went whale watching near Farallon islands (near California) witnessed an unusual attack of orca on a great white shark. The shark suffered severe injuries and died. Two orcas were then feeding on its carcass for 15 minutes.

12 Nov 2009

Krilca (Wings), gifts with magical powers, celebrated their second birthday yesterday, 7th November, 2009. Krilca prove that we can also give presents in a different, original, creative and responsible way. Until today Krilca have made 2835 people happy and have enabled many good deeds for people, animals, the environment and the world.

Krilca are truly magical. Beautiful and useful at the same time, even though they cannot be touched or held. Purchasing Krilca is not just another ordinary shopping, but a good deed that really helps change the world for the better. Our money does not go to a factory but to someone in need.

For their second birthday we really gave Krilca the opportunity to fly: from now on Krilca can also be given as an e-card. You can find all details at www.krilca.si (currently only in Slovene).

The purpose of Krilca is to enable regular income to selected sustainable and socially resposible projects in Slovenia, the countries of the former Yugoslavia and developing countries. Special gifts are delivered for one of many good deeds in the name of a person who receives the present. By buying one of these gifts we can help preserve plant and animal species, reduce poverty in developing countries, fight climate change or simply make an orphan child happy with new sneekers. At the moment you can choose between 42 gifts from different social, evironmental and geographical areas.

Umanotera, Slovenian foundation for sustainable development ensures that the entire money, intended for a certain cause, comes into the right hands. All this is done with the help of partner organisations who carry out these projects. All of them have officially committed themselves to spend the collected money entirely for the project specified in Krilca. Moreover, they prepare regular reports about the funds used, which can be found at www.krilca.si (currently only in Slovene). Morigenos is proud to be a partner to Krilca!

6 Nov 2009

Two days ago, on November 4th, 2009, Morigenos received another interesting report from its Italian colleagues from the Miramare reserve. A whale entered the port of Trieste (North Adriatic). Photos, which we received from our Italian colleagues, show that it was a fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus), also known as the »finback whale«. The whale was also spotted close to Trieste the next day, on November 5th. The animal was estimated to be around 12 m long. The animal was not spotted today. The fin whale is the second largest animal species on Earth, right after the blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus). Fin whales are a regular species in the Mediterranean, but they do not live in the Adriatic. Nevertheless, single individuals happen to enter the waters of the North Adriatic almost every year. Photo: Il Piccolo

The summer-autumn fieldwork season of Morigenos has ended. The winter fieldwork season has started instead. This season, we plan to put a lot of emphasis on winter research. It is very important to gather more information about dolphins in Slovenian waters in winter months. We will, however, gladly remember this year’s summe-autumn season, which was incredible. This is reflected by the feedback of some of our research camps participants below.

“ -Morje- a mystic world with lots of special creatures. Among them: cetaceans! Fact is that millions of years ago their mammalian ancestors returned to the sea to spend their entire life in the water. Isn’t that cool?

“It’s high time to meet these animals in their natural habitat”, I thought to myself. So I grabbed my laptop, googled for a while and suddenly I came across the Morigenos webpage. Lucky me!! Honestly, I didn’t even know that dolphins can be found that far North in the Adriatic Sea. So this was great news, and I started reading through the camp description, looked at the dolphin photos on that site and pretty soon it was clear to me: I want to participate! A decision I wouldn’t regret...

During the ten days in Lucija (camp base, Piran (land observation point), Adriatic Sea (boat surveys), I gathered some special experiences. To me, as an admirer of nature, the encounters with free-ranging dolphins were just breathtaking. It was the 12th of September, a Saturday, and the first time we headed out with the boat to look for dolphins. We weren’t out at the sea for long when I suddenly heard Tilen shouting: “Dolphins”! I looked towards the direction Tilen was pointing, and there they were: MY FIRST DOLPHINS! My heart started beating fast, inside I was screaming, I almost couldn’t believe my eyes. This moment was simply overwhelming. Dolphins approached our boat, and some of them came so close that if I had reached out my hand I could have touched them. We stayed with them until it got too dark to take more photographs. A dolphin’s jump into the sunset was the cherry on top of our first sighting. I felt like the happiest person on the planet.

On the following boat trips we found some juvenile marine turtles which are coming to the Northern Adriatic to feed and of course we saw lots of sea gulls and cormorants. Quite often I mistook a bird for a dorsal fin of a dolphin, (yes, when they’re far away they can look quite similar), that’s why I sometimes didn’t appreciate their presence at all.

Every other day in the evenings, Tilen gave us one of his brilliant lectures. During these we heard lots of interesting stuff about dolphins in the Slovenian waters, the work Morigenos had done so far, future projects, dolphin biology in general, cetaceans in captivity, conservation and so on.

Time flew and the last day of the research camp arrived - our last opportunity for another dolphin sighting. I hadn’t slept much because of the party the night before, and my stomach didn’t feel good either, but honestly, who cares?? I mean, just try not to focus on it, put on your clothes and jump on the boat. The sea was very calm, the sun shining, but that doesn’t give you the guarantee to find them, as we’ve experienced on some trips before. Although it can be really frustrating, being on the boat for several hours not spotting any dolphins, you have to keep a “positive attitude” (I can still hear Tilen saying it with a dinky “French accent”).

And finally we got what we were hoping for. The perfect sighting! A school of over 30 dolphins; adults and calves, performing high jumps, side-jumps, tail slaps, etc. – AWESOME!

I’m sure you agree with me when I say: Time passes by way too fast when you’re having fun. I indeed was a bit sad when time had come to say goodbye to the dolphins, the sea and of course all the nice people (both members and participants) I met during this camp. All in all, these ten days were full of wonderful experiences and I gained a good insight into the work of dolphin researchers.

This camp truly inspired me and I will definitely keep volunteering for cetacean research in the future. And I wouldn’t be surprised to find myself on the participants’ list for one of the next year’s Morigenos camps.”

Karin Künstner, 25, Austria

“What to expect when you come to Morigenos? To see dolphins of course, but you can't imagine to see such a large group jumping and feeding and all that in the sunset! It was such an amazing sighting that you wish you could see them everyday! Even if it didn't happen, I still had the fun to meet with a great crew again and other volunteers. Yes, I said: "again"! It was my second camp in 2 years and I think that it might not be the last one. I enjoy being in that environment so why not come back!”

Sylvie Rimella, 33, Switzerland

“I've been to the Morigenos Summer Camp for the second time this year and as for the first time I really enjoyed it. I got a closer look at dolphin research and how it's carried out. Going out on the boat, searching for dolphins was a great experience for me. But also doing land based surveys was nice, even though one did 'just' observe the dolphins with binoculars. It's just perfect for everyone who wants to learn about dolphins in the wild. There's so much to know about dolphin biology, research techniques and much much more. I came into contact with all this during the day while being out in the field or during lectures and documentaries. Besides there's a lot of other marine life around that's worth knowing about such as sea turtles or fish. What is even more it's also a lot of fun to meet new people from other countries and find friends who are interested in the same as you are yourself and enjoy life at the Slovenian coast together.”